


Quantum Shift

by Annie17851



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Supernatural
Genre: F/M, angst; fluff; canon divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-28 09:32:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 8,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2727392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annie17851/pseuds/Annie17851
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The void (or maybe the TARDIS) drops Rose Tyler in Kansas; the TARDIS wants the Doctor to know why</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Bunker fic; total canon divergence for Doctor Who after Doomsday; future fic; Sam and Rose deserve some happiness,too

Quantum Shift

Chapter 1

 

2150

The TARDIS told him he was in Kansas, the year 2150. Of course, the TARDIS couldn't (or wouldn't) tell him why he was there. The Doctor ran a hand through his tousled brown hair and pulled his long coat closer around himself. It was cold in Kansas in 2150. Winter, then. Not the most pleasant of Earthly seasons. 

He had stepped from the blue box to find himself looking at the remains of some type of underground building. Or maybe partly underground at its’ best. Hard to tell, since it was mostly collapsed in on itself. 

“I’m not going in there!” He told the TARDIS. In response to that, a familiar face misted through his mind, quickening his hearts just a bit.

“She’s in the void. Lost to me,” he muttered softly.

But curiosity would get the better of him, as it always did. 

 

2015

 

Sam ran up the stairs to the bunker’s door at the urgency in Castiel’s voice calling for the brothers. He was also apparently kicking the door frantically, spurring the younger Winchester on.

“I've found a woman!” Cas explained, pushing his way past Sam and down the stairs, carrying a small, limp figure in his arms. “She is wounded!”

“Dean- medkit!” Sam shouted as he followed Castiel, knowing his voice would travel down the bunker’s myriad hallways to wherever his brother was currently located. 

“My room, Cas! Closest.” Sam ordered briskly, noting the golden blonde hair falling untidily over the angel’s (ex-angel’s) left arm. 

Cas gently laid the woman, girl really, on Sam’s bed, brushing strands of hair away from her face. Her very pretty face, Sam noted distractedly. 

“What happened?” Sam asked shortly, looking the girl over carefully to assess the damage, trying not to touch for fear of hurting her further. 

Dean had already been heading in the direction of the bunker’s door, in response to Cas’s agitated kicking, when Sam’s call for the medkit detoured him into one of the bathrooms. Now he came running down the hall toward Sam’s room, asking worriedly about Cas, until he got to the doorway and took in Cas and the girl on the bed in one puzzled glance. Cas was just explaining. 

“I don’t know what happened. She just – fell!”

Sam frowned, taking the medkit from his brother and opening it on the bed. “Dean, towels – warm water,” he instructed, but Dean was already out the door, having seen the blood on the girl in Sam’s bed. 

“From where?” Sam asked, louder then when there was no immediate reply. “Cas! Fell from where?”

Castiel shrugged, brow furrowed in confusion. “From nowhere! I brought supplies, I was at the store. I was just getting out of the car and she…..she just fell. Right in front of the bunker. From nowhere. She landed on some grass. If she had landed on the cement by the door….”

“She’d be dead,” Sam muttered, cataloging the damages automatically as he began to take off her clothes, worrying about internal bleeding. All the blood he could see was from minimal scrapes and bruises, Sam noted, as he piled her clothes on the bed beside her. He left her underthings on, out of a sense of modesty for her. Most concerning to him was the small bit of blood seeping from her ears. Head trauma, then. Not good. Not something they were equipped to deal with. 

She was slim, youngish - maybe in her twenties. She had deep copper eyes, whose pupils reacted equally to the small light Sam used to test them. That, at least, was a good sign. 

“We should take her to the hospital,” Dean decided firmly, setting the basin of warm water and some towels on the floor next to Sam.

Sam, just reaching to gently wash her face, was about to agree when Cas spoke up.

“We can’t.”

The brothers snapped their gazes to Cas at the same time. 

“I can’t explain what happened. There will be questions.” Cas told them.

“Don’t worry about that,” Dean reassured him. “We can just drop her off and leave. They can take care of her a lot better than we can. Do you see the blood in her ears? She needs to be in the hospital.”

“No, Dean,” Castiel insisted. “She’s wrong!”

Sam sighed, turning back to the towels and warm water. Dean would have to handle this. He was better at dealing with the angel (ex, ex, his brain insisted and that was too bad, because if Castiel was still an angel, the discussion would be moot.).

“What do you mean, wrong?” Dean demanded, reaching into a pocket for the small vial of holy water he kept there. Just for situations like this.

Cas’s hand on his arm stopped him. 

“You don’t need that,” Cas said. “She’s human. She’s just, wrong somehow. Like she doesn't belong here. Maybe she doesn't belong on this plane of existence.” He finished quietly. 

“You can tell that by looking?” Sam asked doubtfully.

Cas pressed his lips into a thin line in consternation. 

“My Grace may be gone, but I still have some lingering, sensibilities, I guess you would call them. This woman is certainly human, but she is wrong somehow.”

Cas leaned in closer, watching as Sam used the towels gently on the smooth, pale skin. Cas reached out and took one of her hands between his, closing his eyes for a few moments. 

“It’s not the plane of existence that’s wrong,” Cas announced. “It’s her time. She does belong here, but she has other times. Dean,” Cas looked up, perplexed. “This woman is a time traveler!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Research; who is this woman and how did she get here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Research; who is this woman and how did she get here?

Quantum Shift

Chapter 2

 

“Dean, this woman is a time traveler!” 

 

2150

“Well,” the Doctor said, to no one actually, since it was only him and the TARDIS listening anyway. Thoughts of Rose having already entered his head, he figured he might as well check this dilapidated building out. He couldn't see how it could have anything to do with her, but stranger things had happened. Stranger things would happen. 

 

2015

 

“There’s no such th…..” Dean started to reply, but thought better of it even as the words were leaving his mouth. Of course there was such a thing. 

Sam, almost done cleaning the blood and dirt from the patient, just looked at Cas guardedly. “So, angel then?” he asked quietly.

“No,” Cas replied. “Not even a fallen one,” he clarified, unaware of the irony of the statement. 

“Old-time Winchester?” Dean offered, but Cas just shrugged unhelpfully.

“We’ll just have to wait till she wakes up,” Sam decided, starting to apply antibiotic ointment to the various cuts and bruises.

“In the meantime,” Dean declared, reaching for the girl’s jeans, “maybe she has something that can help us.”

But there was only a small key on a chain in the jeans pocket and nothing at all in the pocket of the soft blue hoodie she had been wearing. 

“Research time,” Sam suggested, grabbing the extra blanket from a chair and settling it over the unconscious form snugly. 

“I will sit with her,” Cas offered. “I feel responsible.”

 

So, Googling ‘time travel’ brought up about 45,600,00 results in 0.24 seconds. Sam frowned and tried ‘time traveler’ instead. That only brought up 3,620,00 results, most of which consisted of very obviously photo-shopped ‘proof’ of time travelers. 

Useless. Dean went out to pick up something for dinner and Sam headed for the huge room full of Men of Letters files, pausing in his room, where neither the girl nor her guardian ex-angel seemed to have moved at all. 

Sam noted with silent satisfaction that the blood seeping from the girl’s ears seemed to have slowed almost to a stop. With strict orders to Castiel to call him if she moved so much as an eyelid, Sam headed for the filing room. 

The Men of Letters filing system left much to be desired. There were probably hundreds of boxes on shelves, filled with folders holding documents, hand-written reports of some phenomenon or other and sometimes even reels of film, like the demon-curing film they had watched once. What Sam found under the letter T consisted of Travelers, generic information only, nothing helpful there; Talos; Thunderbird; Trolls. Sam was pretty sure the girl wasn't a troll. Nothing about time travel. Some day he was going to have to refile everything in some kind of logical system.

So, illogically, Sam thought, running a hand through his hair thoughtfully, standing in the middle of the dusty room.

Dimensions? Nope, nothing about time travelers under D.

Chronological displacement? Nope.

Wormhole? Nope.

This was so frustrating. Sam took a break and went back to his room to check on the fallen not-angel. She had not moved. Neither had Cas. On Sam’s way back to the files he passed through the kitchen where Dean was making burgers. Sam grabbed a beer from the fridge.

“They smell great!” he told his brother. Dean made some kick-ass burgers. 

“So, any luck?” Dean asked, even though he already knew the answer. Sam would have been talking a blue streak if he had found something. 

“That filing system is totally ridiculous. It’s going to take me months to fix it. And the internet is less than useless for this.”

Dean snorted. “First thing under time travel on Google is probably Quantum Leap, right?”

“Actually, no, but…..whoa, Dean, you’re a genius!” Sam grinned at his brother, tipping his half-empty bottle in Dean’s direction before he all but ran from the room. 

“That’s not news, Sammy!” Dean called after him, flipping burgers deftly.

“Not quantum LEAP,” Sam was muttering to himself, looking for boxes with Q files in them. “Quantum THEORY!”

And there it was. But grainy pictures of an old-time police box were not what Sam had expected to find.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What did Sam find in the file room?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What Sam found out

Quantum Shift 

Chapter 3

 

2150

Belying the catastrophic look of the exterior, there were actually passable halls and rooms in the old building. Through the broken outer door, the Doctor descended a set of stairs and then found himself in a huge, once-high-ceilinged room, the center of which was occupied by a big table. It was oddly shaped, surrounded by four chairs and covered with the remains of books and files. These were pretty much unreadable, and the elements drifting in from the myriad of holes in the ceiling had ruined them beyond use. He passed through there and into yet another huge room, this one drier, as the ceiling was more or less intact. There were what used to be wooden tables and chairs lined up forlornly in what appeared to have been a library. The last time he had been in a library, a werewolf had been chasing them. 

 

2015

 

Sam dropped his big file folder of pictures on the kitchen table, throwing a “Back in a minute!” at Dean’s questioning look as he turned and went down the hall to his room. 

“Dinner’s ready, Cas,” Sam told the self-appointed bedside guardian. “You go, I’ll be there in a minute.”

Cas headed for the kitchen gratefully, following the aroma of cheeseburgers that had been tempting him for the last half hour or so. 

The golden girl, as Sam had begun to think of her, was exactly the same as the last time he had checked on her. Sam pulled the blanket away from her gingerly, checking to see if she might need another application of antibiotic cream and decided that was all fine. He ran down to the nearest bathroom and came back with a wet, warm cloth and another towel, to clean the most recent pools of blood out of her ears, noting with some satisfaction that no fresh blood appeared. But he really wished she would wake up soon. The longer she stayed unconscious, the more care she would need, and thoughts of IV fluids ran through his head. 

Sam pulled the chair a bit closer to the bed, hesitant to leave just yet. She was beautiful in repose, and if Sam didn’t know better, he would have thought she was just sleeping. He unconsciously placed a hand over one of hers, studying her finely featured face, remembering the deep gold flecks in her eyes. One of his fingers drifted around her wrist to feel her pulse- slow, steady, like she really was only sleeping. 

Sam released her hand with a sigh. “You really need to wake up soon,” he requested quietly.

Sam could hear the banter from the kitchen before he even got there.

“I already went to town for supplies, Dean. You didn't have to go again.”

“Really, Cas?” Dean scoffed. “I went out to the car to get the supplies you bought. Beer, beef jerky, toilet paper, peach pie, Fruit Loops and a TV Guide. We need actual food.”

Cas just shrugged, deciding his huge cheeseburger warranted more attention than a complaining hunter. 

“You found something, then?” Dean asked his brother, sliding Sam’s plate a bit closer to him as he took a seat. 

“So, get this,” Sam began, ignoring his dinner as he opened the big folder and pulled out a pile of photos, handing them to Dean while Cas looked on curiously. “I found all these pictures. Some are older than others, but they all show this old-time police box. There are notations in the margins of some of the articles. ‘Same box.’ ‘Different man.’ This particular style of police box was prevalent in the UK from the late 1920’s to the early 1980’s. There are less than a handful of them left and they’re not used anymore. There were even police boxes here in the States in the late 1800’s.”

“What does this have to do with time travel?” Dean asked, wanting Sam to get to the point a bit faster. 

“There’s nothing specific here,” Sam told him guardedly. “It’s all speculation. But look at the pictures. Some of them are pictures of drawings that claim to predate police boxes by a lot of years. There are handwritten reports predating their invention describing what can only be one of these blue boxes. And the men in the pictures and the reports - some of them are described more than once, in widely separated eras.”

Dean was frowning as he went through the photos and articles, handing them over to Castiel. 

“Cas, you recognize any of these guys?” Dean asked. “Could they be angels?”

Cas considered carefully and finally shook his head. “No, these are not angels. At least none I have ever seen. But there is no woman depicted here. I have no knowledge of a human time traveler.”

Sam’s brow furrowed in thought. “But, you said she fell. Out of thin air. Do you think she came from, like, another dimension?”

“We’ve seen a lot of weird things, Sammy. Who are we to say anything is impossible?” Dean remarked wryly. 

Sam shook his head in exasperation. “It’s so complicated. Quantum theory, the many worlds theory, Schrödinger’s cat. It’s convoluted and intricate and then if you throw in time travel…..”

“We’ll burn out our non-Sammy brains.” Dean finished for him.

Sam was about to agree with his brother when Cas’s sudden “Oh!” interrupted him. Cas was looking somewhere behind Sam, and then Dean was, too, and when Sam turned around there was the golden girl, leaning weakly against the door frame, trailing her blanket somewhere behind her.

“Where am I? Where’s the Doctor?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose woke up; there is some confusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose has woken up, but where is she? And where is the Doctor?

Quantum Shift 

Chapter 4

 

2150

 

The Doctor’s eyebrows kept going higher and higher, as he perused some of the damp volumes on the shelves. It was someone’s very eclectic collection of books on every paranormal subject imaginable. He wandered even further into the depths of the old building, too intrigued now to worry about being buried in an impending collapse. Little pockets of light crept in from outside, but the Doctor used his sonic to illuminate the dark, cobwebby corners. This room, apparently, was a small kitchen. He found three separate bathrooms and off one long hall there were what appeared to be six bedrooms, three on each side of the dark hallway. Four must have been unoccupied, having only bare metal bed frames pushed up against the far walls. The other two had more furniture, and moldy blankets piled, musty and damp, on the beds. “What happened here?” He wondered aloud. And why would it have anything to do with Rose and the void? 

 

2015

“Where am I? Where’s the Doctor?”

Sam jumped up and rushed to put an arm around her waist.

“Whoa, you need to be in bed!” he admonished her worriedly.

She waved a hand negligently and then thought better of it, leaning weakly into Sam’s chest and shoulder. 

“Bed, yea,” she agreed softly. “But, where am I? And where’s the Doctor?”

“First things first,” Dean demanded, moving to her other side to help Sam steer her back down the hall to bed.

“I..” she began, but stumbled unsteadily, so Dean leaned in and scooped her up in his arms, heading back to Sam’s room, his brother and the angel close at his heels worriedly. 

Dean sat her on Sam’s bed and then turned to grab one of his brother’s t-shirts from a drawer. “Pretty sure you want this,” he told her. “How do you feel? What hurts?” he asked as she donned the shirt gingerly, wincing a bit when some of her muscles objected to the movement. 

“Mostly everything,” she replied. “Really bad headache,” she added.

“Not a surprise,” Sam said, sitting on the chair next to the bed. “Do you know your name?” he asked cautiously. 

“’Course I know my name!” she responded, practically rolling her brown eyes at him. She spoke in what Sam thought was a perfectly endearing British accent. “Where’s the Doctor? Last time I’m asking.” 

Sam held his hands out to calm her. “I’m Sam Winchester. This is my brother, Dean, and he’s Castiel. There is no doctor here. We've been taking care of you. You fell and Castiel found you. Do you remember anything?”

She sighed and closed her eyes briefly. 

“I’m Rose.” She said then. “Rose Tyler. If the Doctor’s not here…..where’s here?” she asked, a bit sadly Sam thought. “And what year is it?”

“Kansas. 2015.” Dean told her. “And you’re obviously not from around here.” In more ways than one, he thought, but didn't say. 

“So, the void…..” Rose started, but then turned her attention to Castiel. 

“I fell and you found me?” she confirmed. 

Cas nodded. “You were wounded,” he explained. “It seemed best to bring you in here to safety.”

“Where did I fall from?”

“Thin air, apparently,” Sam told her.

“I should be nowhere. The void-it dropped me here. That’s very strange! And I was alone?” she asked, looking to Cas again.

Cas nodded. “I saw you fall – from nowhere. You landed just outside the bunker. And you were definitely alone.”

Rose’s brow furrowed in confusion. 

“Bunker? Is there a war on? Did the Cybermen and the Daleks come through the void to here, too?”

“No,” Sam assured her. “At least, not that we know of. And the bunker is along story.”

“Yea, you first,” Dean suggested firmly.

Rose nodded. “Could I have some water? Or some tea maybe?”

“Sure, of course!” Sam agreed, looking up at Cas. “Cas, do you mind?”

“I’m sure we have some tea somewhere,” Cas assured her, heading back to the kitchen. 

“So, Cybermen?” Dean prompted, leaning against the wall by the door, watching her with his hunter’s eyes. 

“Rose,” Sam urged her, shooting a bitch face at his brother briefly. “Just tell us.”

“I travel in time and space with the Doctor,” she began.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose's story; The TARDIS shows the Doctor what happened to the bunker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's story; The TARDIS shows the Doctor what happened to the bunker

Quantum Shift 

Chapter 5

 

2150

Back in the TARDIS control room, the Doctor poked a monitor screen impatiently with a determined finger.

"What happened here? You show me!" he demanded.

For a few moments, his only reply was static. Then the screen cleared suddenly and the Doctor was looking at a replay of an old news report. There was a voice-over narrating a shaky aerial video showing a vast forest in the midst of catastrophic destruction. The camera was shaking - no, the forest was shaking and the Doctor listened sadly as the reporter detailed the long-range effects of the 8.6 earthquake and aftershocks shattering the national park not so far away from this spot.

Well, that explained the destruction, but not why the TARDIS had deposited him here, almost 75 years later.

 

2015

"I travel with the Doctor in time and space," Rose began matter-of-factly. "I grew up in London, the Powell Estates. Just Mum and me. Dad died when I was very young. The Doctor has a ship. The TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space. It's a blue box and it's bigger on the inside. It only looks like an old police box because the camouflage what's-it is broken. Or stuck, or something. The Doctor is an alien. He's from the planet Gallifrey."

Dean raised a finger to stop her there, but then thought better of it and motioned her to go on.

"It would take quite a while to tell you everything. But, there were aliens, Cybermen and Daleks. There was fighting. We opened the void to trap them, send them away. I tried to hold on, but the void was too strong. Apparently, I ended up here. I don't know why the void would drop me in this time and place. It was 2006 when I fell into the void. Do you know anything about Canary Wharf?"

Castiel appeared in the doorway then, mug of tea in one hand and Sam's laptop in the other. 

"Thanks, Cas!" Sam smiled, taking the computer and powering it up as Cas carefully handed the warm mug to Rose.

"Thank you, Castiel," she said softly. "What sorta name is that anyway?"

"Angelic," Dean interjected before Cas could tell her. Cas joined Dean over by the door then, and the distinct lack of personal space raised one of Rose's eyebrows slightly. 

Rose sipped the tea gratefully. "So, the void dropped me in a different timeline? Where is here anyway and why do you call this place a bunker?"

Sam looked up at Dean and the older Winchester nodded slightly.

"It's called the bunker because most of it is underground." Sam explained. "It's - it was - the headquarters for a secret group called the Men of Letters. They investigated and kept records of all kinds of paranormal and demonic activities. All of them are gone now, but we're kind of carrying the torch, I guess."

"Demonic?" Rose asked curiously.

"Very," Cas graveled out, earning an almost amused sidelong glance from Dean.

"And you've never heard of the Doctor? Cybermen? Daleks?" Rose asked.

Sam shook his head. "No, but we have heard of that blue box."

Sam ran back to the kitchen and grabbed the pile of photos and articles they had been studying. 

"Here," he handed them to Rose, taking the tea from her so she could flip through the stuff more easily.

Her sharp intake of breath drew their collective attention and she shakily held up a few of the old photos.

One showed a forty-ish, short-haired man in a leather jacket. "The Doctor," Rose told them. She picked up another photo, this one of a younger man, brown hair sticking up wildly, long coat swirling around him. She smoothed a finger gently across the surface of the photo before she handed it to Sam. 

"And also, the Doctor."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor finds a journal; Rose explains a little more; there's chips

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor finds a journal; Rose explains a little more; there's chips

Quantum Shift 

Chapter 6

 

2150

Back in the semi-demolished building again, the slim man with the messy brown hair wandered carefully down dark hallways into even darker rooms. He carried a light this time, wanting a better look at everything. He found a room full of damp, moldy files, shelves and shelves of them. They crumbled wetly when he tried to look at a few of them, so he gave that up as a lost cause. 

Timelord curiosity aroused, the Doctor wondered if the TARDIS couldn't just take him back to a time when there was a bit less destruction. Or if the TARDIS would, if asked.

Back in one of the bedrooms, now that he had better light, the Doctor found a small, leather-bound book on a table next to the bed. 'Sam Winchester' was written neatly on the first page. The Doctor browsed the pages cursorily, until one sentence jumped out at him.

“July 13, 2015 - Cas found a woman today.” 

 

2015

 

"And this is also the Doctor," Rose had said.

Dean's brow wrinkled then. "So, what? There's more than one? Is it a hand-me-down title?"

Rose smiled widely and shook her head. "He is the same man, always." She told them. "He regenerates whenever it's time. It's not really complicated. He is the last Timelord."

"Timelord?" Cas repeated. "He rules time?"

"No, not like that!" She replied. "He can travel in time. He helps people. I'm hungry!" she complained. "Did I see chips?" she asked.

"Oh, God, of course you're hungry!" Sam apologized.

"There are no chips," Cas told her, giving Dean a slightly admonishing glance, as though it was the hunter's fault. "I like chips, too."

Dean just rolled his eyes. "You were at the store, too, Cas." He reminded the ex-angel. 

"She means fries, Cas," Sam explained, quelling the imminent argument, then turning to Rose again.

"I'm sorry, we're so busy with the questions I haven't been thinking. Dean deep fries a mean potato and his burgers are the best."

"I'll make fresh stuff," Dean offered, peeling himself away from the wall and heading back to the kitchen.

"If you want," Sam went on, "You can shower while he gets it ready. I can throw your clothes in the washer. I might be able to find something you can wear in the meantime."

"So, I'm dirty now?" Rose asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

"No, that's not...I mean, you did have dirt and blood on you. And then you can put more antibiotic cream on your...on yourself."

Rose dipped her head to the now-empty mug. Sam was so wonderfully flustered.

"I would like that, thank you," she agreed.

Half an hour later, Dean was serving up fresh burgers and fries for everyone, since their own meal had been interrupted, the girl's clothes were just starting to spin merrily in the dryer and Rose stepped into the kitchen, hair still wet from the shower, gratefully inhaling the delicious aroma in the air.

Sam had given her clothes of his own. She was wearing a t-shirt that drowned her small form and a pair of sweats that were held up with her own belt cinched tightly around her waist and the bottoms rolled up too many times to count. 

She looked down at her attire self-consciously before she took a seat at the table.

"I look just....awful!" she laughed. 

Sam bit into his burger to hide a smile. He thought she looked absolutely adorable.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor reads; Rose and the boys exchange stories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor reads; Rose and the boys exchange stories

Quantum Shift

Chapter 7

 

2150

“Cas found a woman. She appeared out of thin air. She says her name is Rose Tyler”

The Doctor went on to read the Men of Letters story, and his own and Rose’s story, as told to the author of the journal, this Sam Winchester. The Doctor sat for quite a while, mesmerized by the account of the day-to-day, long-ago events in this place.

 

2015

After burgers, and when Rose finally had her own clothes back, she sat next to Sam at one of the long tables in the library, watching hopefully as he cruised the internet. He found Jackie Tyler on social media – a Jackie Tyler who was childless. Without knowing for sure which timeline she was in, Rose hesitated to try to contact Jackie, much as she wanted to. 

There was no Torchwood here either, and there had never been an alien invasion at Canary Wharf. Googling Cybermen and Daleks was fruitless as well, which Sam had expected. Searching for The Doctor, all capitalized, gave them nothing pertinent.

Rose was obviously distressed. 

“I have to find him!” she insisted. “Or he’ll find me,” she added confidently. 

“We’ll figure something out,” Sam promised, powering down the laptop. “In the meantime, you have nowhere to go.” He pointed out.

“S’pose not,” Rose agreed dejectedly. “No home, no job, no family. I have no place here.”

Sam cleared his throat self-consciously. “We have lots of room here,” he told her. “I’ll get a bedroom set up for you and tomorrow we can head to the mall and get you some clothes. And – stuff. Other, whatever things you need.”

“I don’t have…” Rose started to object but Sam stopped her with a shake of his head. “Money’s not a problem. After we get back tomorrow, we’re going to bring you up to speed on what goes on around here.”

 

The next day, after bags of jeans and pastel-colored shirts and sneakers had found their way into drawers in the bedroom across the hall from Sam’s, Rose sat enthralled, bottle of beer untouched on the table before her. Sam, Dean and Castiel narrated a tale for her that, without having had her own other-worldly adventures, would have been hard to believe.

Rose alternated between laughing, holding her breath and having tears shining in her eyes as she listened raptly.

“I heard a story about angels once- stone angels –but they were very unangelic, it seems,” she remarked, in awe of Castiel, even though they had explained to her that he was essentially human now.

Castiel frowned. “The only stone angels I know of are in cemeteries and churches. Obviously in art museums and the like. They are simply inanimate and mostly incorrect representations of how the humans have envisioned us over the years.”

Sam hid a small smile by taking a drink of his beer.

“That’s our story, and now you’re here.” Dean finished the tale, touching the lip of his bottle to hers briefly. “And you’re up, Rosie-girl! Spill it.”

Rose smiled, took a sip of her almost-warm beer, and followed that with a deep breath.

“I was working at Henrik’s Department Store,” she began.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose settles in; Cas is injured

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose settles in; Cas is injured

Quantum Shift 

Chapter 8

 

2150

Words in a journal: “I think I love her.”

 

2015

Life in the bunker settled in, just a bit uneasily. Rose kept herself busy helping Sam with all the files and books, stopping too often to read the fascinating accounts of demons and monsters. She always apologized for holding up their progress, but Sam encouraged her to read as much as she wanted. After all, she probably wasn't going anywhere any time soon, or so Sam fervently hoped. 

They continued hunting, of course, because there were still all manner of baddies out there, but Sam bowed out on a lot of the simpler hunts, leaving the dirty work to Castiel and Dean, staying behind with Rose. Sam also found himself turning into Bobby Singer, as, more and more often, other hunters from across the country would call the Winchesters for information, advice or help. Dean left all of that to Sam, preferring the hands-on component of stopping the evil things. 

Rose had been at the bunker with them for about a month when Dean burst through the door after a hunt, supporting an obviously injured Castiel with an arm around his waist, shouting for Sam and Rose before he was even halfway into the bunker. Rose ran to get the first aid kit and Sam headed for his brother and Cas, helping support a bloody ex-angel until they got him to his room. 

“Wendigo slashed him,” Dean explained shortly, sitting Castiel down on his bed and gingerly removing the too-many layers of clothing to examine a long slash in his shoulder. Rose appeared with towels and the first aid kit, already taking out the stitching equipment as Dean gently wiped away the blood. 

“It’s fine. I’m fine,” Castiel told them, grimacing at each swipe of the towel across the wound. 

“No, Cas, you’re not, but you will be.” Sam assured him. “This isn't as bad as it looked from all the blood. A few stitches and you’ll be as good as new.”

Dean reached out a hand for the suturing supplies. Rose was about to hand them to him when she saw that his hand was shaking just a bit. 

“I can do this, Dean,” she offered, warmth from the grateful hand Sam placed on her arm almost making her blush. “Run and get a glass of water so Cas can have some of those painkillers in the kit. And a pot of coffee might be nice. And some whiskey. Castiel would probably appreciate a bit of each, yea?” She spared a glance away from examining the wound to wink at Cas conspiratorially, then turned her attention back to the job at hand. 

An hour or so later, with Castiel propped up in a corner of the couch, ancient book settled in his lap, Rose picked up her coffee mug and glanced in from the big table where she and Sam were doing research. Dean was hovering and Castiel was enduring it silently. 

“So,” she said quietly, so only Sam could hear. “Dean and Cas, yea?”

Sam looked up with a raised eyebrow and a small, knowing smile. “Oh, yea. Would probably work out better if they knew it.”

Rose laughed softly, looking into the other room again briefly before she went back to the files on the table. 

Early next morning, awake first as usual, Sam decided to forego his usual run and surprise everyone with his special French toast for breakfast. He was humming under his breath and playfully tossing eggs back and forth in his hands before breaking them into a big bowl when Rose walked into the kitchen. 

She had her soft pink pajamas on and her feet were bare, slapping so quietly on the tiled floors that he hadn't even heard her coming down the hall. Her bed-tousled hair was a golden cloud around her face and her skin was still flushed warm from being under the big down comforter. 

His composure slipped, just enough so that he missed one of the eggs and it splattered onto the floor at his feet. 

Rose laughed at his muttered “Crap!”

“Good job, Winchester,” she teased, handing him the roll of paper towels. The early-morning sunlight burned golden glints into her hair and Sam’s breath caught hurtfully. 

Sam loved her. Suddenly and desperately.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean and Sam have a heart-to-heart about Rose;and maybe a little about Cas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dean and Sam have a heart-to-heart about Rose;and maybe a little about Cas

Quantum Shift

Chapter 9

 

2150

“She thinks of him often, I can tell,” the Doctor read. “She is trying to deny to herself that this search is fruitless. I see it in her face when she is lost in thought and doesn’t realize I’m watching. But, sometimes, when she forgets for a few minutes, there’s sunshine in her eyes and she smiles and….OK, I’m stopping now.”

 

2015

Dean ended the call and slipped his cell phone back into his pocket. 

“Shapeshifter,” he told Sam and Castiel. “Two days away. Garth wants to meet us there.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Garth is hunting again?”

“Guess he got bored,” Dean threw back over his shoulder, heading to his room to pack a duffle bag. “Wolf nose might be useful anyway,” he shrugged. 

Cas got up from the big comfy chair he was currently occupying and started for his bedroom as well. “I’ll be ready in two minutes,” he called down the hall to Dean’s retreating back. 

Dean slowed his steps and turned casually. “Not this time, Cas. I want you to sit this one out. Sam should go along this time.” 

“I should?” Sam interjected, right in the middle of translating an ancient book and obviously reluctant to leave.

“Yea, Sam, you should. I don’t want you getting out of practice. Cas,” Dean said, raising a hand to ward off the forthcoming objection he could see forming on the ex-angel’s lips. “You’re wounded. You have fresh stitches. I want you to stay here. Rest. Heal. Help Rose in the file room.”

“If you think that’s best,” Cas agreed halfheartedly. 

“It’s best if you don’t get your stitches torn out by a Shapeshifter, that’s what I think,” Dean insisted. “Five days. Two days out, one day ganking, two days back. Rose can keep an eye on your battle wound and you can entertain her with tales of your dick brothers and sisters.” Dean suggested kiddingly.

They weren't even a quarter-mile away from the bunker when Sam spoke up. 

“So, what’s this about, Dean?”

Dean hesitated. Then, “Do you want Rose to stay?”

“It’s pretty much her only option right now,” Sam replied. “Plus, I appreciate the help.”

Dean spared a glance away from the road to gauge his brother’s reaction to the conversation. “I notice you appreciate lots of things about Rose. Don’t get me wrong, I really like her, but we could find her a job and a place to live, you know.”

“Well, I don’t want her to leave,” Sam replied frankly, turning his face to look out the window at the passing Kansas scenery.

“You know she’s still researching her Doctor. Torchwood. Alternate universes,” Dean reminded him. 

“I know,” Sam agreed. “I’m helping her. It’s useless. I think she’s just stuck here and I won’t just – throw her to the wolves.”

Dean laughed shortly. “You've heard her stories. If they’re true, if she’s not just, you know –delusional – then she seems perfectly capable of taking care of herself. I just don’t want to see you get hurt, Sammy.”

“The stories must be true,” Sam mused. “Cas saw her appear out of nowhere. And speaking of your fallen angel…”

“He’s not my angel,” Dean interrupted uncomfortably.

Sam snorted. “Yea, you keep telling yourself that. It’s Castiel you really need to be having the heart-to-heart with.”

Dean glared at the highway. “You might be able to talk to Rose, and you should. Talking to Cas about some stuff, that takes the kind of courage I don’t have,” Dean admitted quietly. “Just be careful Sam. If she finds him, she’s gone.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam wants Rose to stay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sam wants Rose to stay.

Quantum Shift 

Chapter 10

 

2150

“Rose fits in here so well with us. Between the stuff she knows from all her own ‘travels’ and everything she has learned on her own here, she is becoming a real Woman of Letters. Dean and Cas treat her like a sister and I just simply love her. 

“I don’t think she thought of him at all today.”

 

2015

Just as Dean had told Castiel, he and Sam got back to the bunker in five days. It was late evening when they arrived and Dean settled into the couch in front of the movie Cas was watching, to tell the ex-angel all about the hunt and check his stitches. 

Sam found Rose in the kitchen, sitting quietly, cup of tea apparently untouched in front of her. 

“You’re back!” She greeted him brightly.

“As promised,” Sam replied, reaching into the fridge for a beer. He settled tentatively in a chair across from her.

“How’d it go?” She asked. “No injuries, I hope.”

“Nah,” Sam waved that off. “We’re fine. Shapeshifter – not so much!”

“I’m glad. We were worried,” she told him, taking a sip of her tea and making a face. It was cold. She got up to nuke it a bit, and Sam found the courage to start this conversation, since her back was to him and he didn't have to look in her eyes. 

“How did it go here? Have you, um, found anything?”

She sighed and waited the few seconds to retrieve her cup from the microwave before she turned back to the table.

“We filed. We researched. I checked Cas’s stitches. He told me things…..what an existence he’s had! So much like…” She stopped.

“The Doctor,” Sam finished for her quietly.

“Yea,” Rose said, looking down into her tea and then finally turning tearful eyes to Sam. 

“I’ll never find him. He doesn't exist here. In the other world- in my world – I found him on the internet fairly easily. But not here. So how did these Men of Letters get those files you showed me? Did they travel to another dimension?”

“There are plenty of mysteries surrounding the Men of Letters,” Sam told her. “I don’t think they got that research on their own. I’m starting to believe there was some kind of dimension travel involved, and I have found no evidence of it at all, even with all the journals and files I've read.”

“It’s okay,” Rose said sadly. “Cas and I have made a huge dent in the file room. I don’t think you need me here anymore. You, Dean and Cas have been so good to me, but it’s time for me to take care of myself. Get a job. Get a place. I’ll still come and help, if you want me to.”

“No,” Sam protested emphatically, heart skittering madly at the thought of Rose leaving. “You’re safe here. Your help has been invaluable to us. You should stay here with us. We could pay you –some anyway – and you can be an official Woman of Letters. I – Dean and I already discussed it. You don’t have to go. Unless you want to, that is”

“I don’t want to,” she admitted. “I just thought you guys were all sick of me by now.”

“Never happen!” Sam assured her, daring to brush a kiss across her cheek as he got up to take a beer to Dean. Rose would be staying.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time marches on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time Marches on.

Quantum Shift

Chapter 11

 

2150

 

Rose is staying.

Then: “December 24, 2016

We had so much fun this week- baking cookies and making a mess in the kitchen. Dean acted like he was pissed about it, but we know he wasn't. The tree looks beautiful, so much nicer than when Dean and I used to do it ourselves. It’s good here now. Dean and Cas hunt. Sometimes I help. Rose has even gone along quite a few times. Our little Rose is no one to mess with. Rose and I are the new Bobby. All the hunters call here for advice and cases, or help. She especially gets along with Cas and I tend to think of the two of them as ‘our’ angels, although I would never say anything like that out loud in front of Dean.”

“July 14, 2017

I think she loves me. I am going to ask her.”

 

2015

Rose stayed.

 

2018

Dean reached over and adjusted Sam’s tie. 

“I swear, you’re worse than Cas with this!” Dean complained good-naturedly, blatantly trying to calm his brother down a bit. “It’s fine, you know. It’s just a piece of paper that you don’t really need.” 

Sam took a deep breath. “I’m fine. I just don’t want to get up there and find out she changed her mind.”

Dean laughed. “Just got a text from Cas two minutes ago, said Rose is worried about exactly the same thing. It will be fine. I’m pretty sure Cas and Charlie won’t let her slip away before you tie the knot.” Dean settled Sam’s suit jacket on his shoulders a bit more comfortably. “Time to go, Sammy. Don’t keep that beautiful bride waiting!”

 

2020

“Sit down, Cas! I can’t stand your pacing anymore!” Dean griped. “After all the millennia you've been around, you should have more patience!”

Cas glared at the doorway to the maternity waiting room, nerves stretched taut again at the lack of news regarding the newest Winchester.

“How can you stand this? If I had my powers….” He started.

Dean waved a hand to interrupt him. “She’d still have to have the baby the exact same way! These things take time. Relax.” Dean advised.

“We should move out of the bunker now,” Cas suggested. “Now that they’re like a little family.”

“Sam, Rose and I already talked about that,” Dean reminded him. “There’s lots of room, and since you and I are still hunting, they want us there, where it’s safe. Plus, I’m going to have a gorgeous new niece any minute! I don’t want to go anywhere!”

…………….

“Push, Rose! Just one more time!” Sam entreated her, one hand trapped in a bone-crushing grip, the other smoothing sweat-damp hair out of her eyes. 

“I am, damn it!” Rose gasped out, just as the doctor announced triumphantly, “She’s here!”

Rose fell back limply on the bed, thankfully releasing her iron-clad hold on her husband’s hand. “Let me see her!” she demanded.

“One second,” the nurse assured her, and then they heard the tiny cry and Sam watched in total amazement as the doctor took the squirming, squalling bundle from the nurse and laid her gently against Rose’s chest. Rose ran a finger across the tiny forehead and burst into tears.

Sam leaned over, tears in his eyes, to kiss Rose softly, one hand resting gently on the blanketed bundle in his wife’s arms. 

 

Sam burst into the waiting room, cell phone in his hand, thrusting it screen-out at his brother and Castiel.

“She’s here!” he announced, smiling ear to ear, traces of tears still in his eyes. “Mary Rose Winchester!”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The years have passed well. The Doctor finally figures it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The years have passed well. The Doctor finally figures it out.

Quantum Shift 

Chapter 12

 

2150 

 

There were pictures in the back of the journal, one on each page, taped on and hanging precariously by the drying glue on the tape. 

His Rose, sitting at a long table with a huge book in front of her, a table he recognized from one of the rooms he had walked through in this bunker. He knew that’s where he was now – in this Men of Letters bunker, home to three demon hunters and his Rose. 

More photos: Rose and a man with longish brown hair, this Sam Winchester, apparently, leaning together and pointing at a picture in a big book which they clearly found humorous. Rose’s smile warmed his hearts, like it always had. 

Two other men, leaning companionably against a big, shining black vehicle, most probably the Dean and Castiel Sam Winchester had written about in the journal. The Doctor wasn't sure which one of the two was the ‘fallen angel,’ and that lack of knowledge annoyed him. But looking at the pictures was lighting a spark of a thought in his head.

Sam Winchester and Rose, a wedding photo, and Rose looked so brilliantly happy and beautiful that his hearts literally ached.

Sam and Rose, with a gorgeous blonde child about three years old. Mary Rose Winchester. And that was when the spark of a thought in the Doctor’s head burst into a flame of realization. He ran back out to the TARDIS, Sam Winchester’s journal clutched tightly in his hand. Running inside, he laid the leather-bound book down carefully and addressed the console.

“I know why I’m here! You did this,” he accused his ship. “You knew where she was! And when. You showed me all this to make sure I wouldn't look for Rose and interfere. Don’t you just know me so well! You already know I’m the most interfering bloke in the universe. You planted those files! You wanted to make sure they’d believe her. Help her. Rose missed me. She searched for me.”

He ran a hand through his already-messy hair. “Well, I get it. I change and go on and sooner or later I would have to go on without her. I would have had to leave her behind.”

The Doctor put a hand on the journal tenderly. He would have to find a safe place for this, because there was no way he was leaving it behind.

“She was happy. I’m glad for that! Rose Tyler deserved to be happy, even if it had to be without me. Thank you.” The tenth incarnation of the Doctor cleared his throat self-consciously, taking another look at the old family photo in the back of Sam Winchester's journal. 

“Let’s go somewhere. Somewhere in our own timeline.”

 

2050

 

Sam shook his head, tolerant smile on his face, as he surveyed the mass of brightly-wrapped boxes and gift bags crowded under the huge tree. 

“Too much, Rose, as usual,” he said indulgently to his wife, leaning over her chair to distract her from opening the mail with a kiss. So many years have passed, he mused silently, and his Rose could still make his heart beat a bit faster in his chest. 

“It’s Christmas, Sam, and we don’t get to see Mary and the kids anywhere nearly as often as I’d like.” She replied with a sunny smile. 

Sam knelt down in front of the chair and grabbed her hands. “Have you been happy here, Rose? All these years? Really?”

Mail forgotten, Rose leaned over to return the kiss gently. 

“Yes, all these years.” She assured him softly. “The void-or the TARDIS – dropped me here for a reason. I figured that out a long time ago. I think it was done to protect him, to save him from having to watch me wither and die. I just wish – I hope – that he knows, that somewhere, sometime, he knows how happy I've been. How happy we've been.” 

Rose spared a fond thought for the key nestled safely in a music box in their bedroom, then turned her attention to the soft glow of twinkle lights from the tree. She switched the position of their hands and squeezed Sam’s tightly. 

“I couldn't trade this for anything now. You, Mary and the kids, Dean and Cas. I love my Kansas family!” She let go of his hands then and ruffled his still-longish hair playfully, ignoring the gray she could see sneaking in there. She was getting a bit of gray in her own hair, truth be told. 

Their little heart-to-heart was interrupted by the appearance of Dean and Castiel, arms loaded down with even more gifts that had to find a home under the tree.

“Where is my niece?” Dean asked impatiently. Mary Rose Winchester had been the apple of Dean’s eye since the day she came squalling into the world. 

Rose rolled her eyes as she and Sam got up to help make space for all the new gifts. 

“I can’t wait to see the kids opening their gifts,” Cas added, reaching over to give Rose a small kiss on the cheek. “Merry Christmas, Rose. The tree is beautiful. It always is.”

“Thanks, Cas,” she smiled, the special smile she had always had for the ex-angel. She glanced at her watch. “They should be here in about a half-hour and dinner will be ready about an hour after that. So no snacking,” she ordered, lightly slapping at Dean’s hand as he was reaching for a cookie from the tray on the side table. 

“Those are out for Santa!” she admonished. 

“Sam wants one, too!” Dean tried to defend his action, but Sam refused to back him up, raising his hands innocently at the raised eyebrows his wife directed his way. 

“I’m waiting for dinner!” Sam promised. 

“You know,” Dean reminded her, “Back in the day, a chubby guy in a red suit sneaking into people’s houses in the middle of the night would have been a job for us!”

Sam and Cas laughed in agreement, but Rose ignored them and went to a table to pour mugs of eggnog. 

“I don’t want to talk about work just now. I want to share some Christmas cheer with my boys before everyone gets here. Sam?” 

He helped her pass around the mugs and then Rose just stood silently for a few seconds, looking at her ‘boys’, these men she loved and had shared her life with in this strange and beautiful bunker. Dean, so much a brother to her all these years. Castiel, the fallen angel, an outsider like herself, taken in and made part of the family. Sam, the man she loved so much and would, until she drew her last breath. 

Rose put her mug down, and hugged the three of them in turn, a shine of happy tears in her eyes, a whispered “I love you,” in each ear, an extra kiss for Sam. She retrieved her mug and raised it.

“Sometimes,” she said, “you have to give up everything to get everything. We have everything that matters right here. Merry Christmas, my loves!”


End file.
